Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  Between Hope and Anxiety

  5 March 2018, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  The mystery surrounding superstar Sridevi’s untimely demise—manifest in the UAE authorities’ “comprehensive investigation” that resulted in inordinate delay in the release of her body—is finally over with the Dubai Police telling Indian diplomats that they “did not suspect any foul play”. The body arrived in Mumbai last night and this afternoon her last rites were performed in the city by her husband. Thus all speculations in the media regarding the cause of her tragic (…)

• AAP’s Winter of Worries : ‘Loss’ in an ‘Office of Profit’

  5 March 2018

  by Sanjay Mishra
  Introduction
  After allegations of corruption and favouring two businessmen for the Rajya Sabha seats over a founder member and a popular leader of the party, Kumar Vishwas, the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) winter of worries only got worsened in the ‘Office of Profit’ (OoP) case. The party, of course in keeping with its wont, has been seemingly caught on the wrong side of the law in the OoP case and, with about two years still to go for the end to the tenure of its rule in (…)

• Nilabh Mishra Will Be Dearly Missed

  5 March 2018, by Bharat Dogra

  TRIBUTE
  At a time when the voice of justice and social concerns is getting weaker in the media, the sudden departure of Neelabh Mishra, Editor of National Herald, at the age of only 57 is extremely tragic. He will be dearly missed by a large number of friends not just in the media but perhaps even more so among social activists and civil liberties activists. He along with Kavita Srivastava made an important contribution to many important social causes.
  Neelabh wrote several important (…)

• Who is Responsible for India’s Partition and Kashmir Imbroglio?

  5 March 2018

  by Ram Puniyani
  Political tendencies not only distort and ‘present the past’ to suit their political agenda; they can go to any extent to even lie about the events and their interpretation. ‘Facts are sacred; opinions are free’ should have been the dictum for all those commenting on them, but as they say for the likes of Modi, ‘all is fair in love and war’. To promote his personal ambitions and to enhance the impact of his political agenda, he has been crossing all limits. At one level in (…)

• Judiciary in Bangladesh under Pressure

  5 March 2018, by Kuldip Nayar

  The judiciary in Bangladesh is so much under pressure that it is difficult to believe the five-year sentence given to former Prime Minister and Opposition leader Khaleda Zia is genuine. The judges are on the run because of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s reported annoyance with them. One judge has gone abroad but may not return because he is said to be in the bad books of the Prime Minister. Understandably, the judge fears some action against him if and when he lands at Dhaka. In fact, almost (…)

• India, Pakistan and Mobocracy

  5 March 2018

  by Shiraz Sheikh
  Here is a tale of two countries not only with shared genesis but also with divergent experiences of regime types. At one end is India which was built with pluralism under a democratic leadership and with inheritance of the colonial state apparatus. It successfully spread the branch of procedural democracy and is proud of being the largest democracy in the world. On the other end is Pakistan that suffered from structural discontinuity coupled with dearth of political (…)

• Kashmir: Setting the Priorities

  5 March 2018, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  In 1967, that is, more than fifty years ago, N.C. visited the Kashmir Valley for a few days and held detailed discussions with a wide cross-section of opinion-makers and political personalities of all shades there. On his return he wrote a series of pieces on Kashmir in Mainstream. The following is the fourth and last instalment of the series ‘Special Report on Kashmir’ and was published in this journal’s November 18, 1967 issue. It is being reproduced now that Kashmir (…)

• Nirav Modi Fraud: Tip of the Iceberg

  5 March 2018, by Arup Kumar Sen

  The world of finance is a world of mystery. The common man is not in a position to understand its intricacies. In the age of domination of finance capital under neo-liberalism, financial scams constitute the new face of plunder. The latest addition to the list of financial scams in India is the one engineered by Nirav Modi.
  The main bank involved in the Nirav Modi fraud case, Punjab National Bank (PNB), reported a steady slide in its profitability over four of the last five years, and the (…)

• Choksi (Vigilance)

  5 March 2018, by Badri Raina

  The Bank was observing choksi, so Knowing when the Chowkidar Would turn his back, A wink went to good friend, Nirav, Who walked in to pick up the sack. His subsequent stop was Davos where Among the most chosen few He was seen next to you know who. A further wink from vigilant eye Turned Nirav from citizen to NRI. Mehul bhai, uncle, was smarter still, Being first-named in House Number One even as he had both hands In the so obliging till.
  The man who famously alerted The Republic to a one (…)

• Bank Scam: The Oldest and the Newest

  5 March 2018, by A K Biswas

  About 178 years ago, Calcutta saw the first bank scam of the subcontinent. A duo comprising one Raj Kishore Datta and his son-in-law, Dwarka Nath Mitra, plundered a bank which, interestingly, was founded by the father-in-law himself. Author Shib Chunder Bose, in his The Hindoos As They Are (published in 1881), documented this pioneering loot. He was, however, ashamed to furnish the full list of the glowing accomplices and accompanists in the crime. He, of course, hinted that a combination (…)